Addendum
by ReaperKiller
Summary: The Geth discover an anomaly worth study during its recovery process./ Different Arcs will be subject to format differentiation from others/Reviews and opinions would be nice :D
1. Anomaly

**Opening chapters will be short. It may be some time before the real intense stuff happens but as the summary said this story is sortof told in reverse/random order lol I hope you enjoy :D**

* * *

_"Beginning Subject Revival."_ The message traveled at faster than light speeds through the consensus.

A low humming filled the room as machines turned on. Attempting to revive the unconscious and previously injured being.

_"Subject revival failure. Beginning internal scan."_

The flashlight head projected a blue light of the body laying on the table before them. After a few minutes it stopped.

_"Scan failure. Brainwaves cannot be identified by this consensus."_

_"We will send for a more advanced units." _The order was sent immediately.

The unit performing the scan felt the consensus within its hardware expand, its own cognitive faculties and processing power was nearly tripled. Without a word it began to scan again. Only to come to the same result.

_"Scan failure. Brainwaves cannot be identified. Beginning search from all possible data storages on organic brain functions related to this... No results available."_

The geth didn't use any form of body language. All just cold machines while the brilliant minds within spoke to one another and exchanged data at faster than light speeds. The anomaly before them puzzled the consensus. The being appeared human, a physical form comparative to that of well fit soldier. His face unmarked by anything out of the ordinary. No signs of implants when the black hair was combed through.

And yet...

_"Conclusion. Organic life form is an improper title for subject."_ The lead examination unit decided, _"Attempting to establish link through all known cognitive communication frequencies."_

Silence for the following twenty minutes.

_"Success. Beginning system reboot." _

The geth watched with much confusion as the eyes of the human opened. Glowing a light green as they fixated on the ceiling above. He didn't make any movements or say anything.

_"System reboot unsuccessful."_ The examiner stated, _"Basic cognitive faculties disabled. Tracing cause... Cause of disruption being shock and respiratory system failure induced by severe injuries."_

_"Attempting memory retrieval." _Another unit stated as its head emitted a similar light aimed only at the humans skull, _"Success... Addendum. No brain function found to confirm memory storage."_

_"Negative." _The lead examination geth suddenly replied, _"No organic memory storage existent in this individual. However. A large quantity of audio and video recordings have been located. Scanning... Subject identification has been located. Subject designation; Experimental Life Intelligence."_

The geth all took the information and their systems acknowledged the designated human being.

_"E.L.I most recent storage log found. Beginning playback. Time stamp 458 days ago." _The geth turned his head, emitting a hologram screen to show what was found within E. head.

_Video Log 934_

_Mission#: 16_

_Location: Ilos _

_Threat Level: Extreme_

_Objective: Conduit_

Images of an orange cloudy sky flashed across the screen. Gunfire sounded and a few plasma rounds flickered across his eyes. Audio was nearly unrecognizable. And vision was almost completely blurred. Half of the monitor was covered in red while the other half flickered with hazard signs from the HUD of his helmet. The remains of two geth colossi on the ground around him.

"GO NOW!" A strong male voice ordered urgently, the tone of panic was obvious.

The sound of an engine roaring to life behind him and speeding up quickly. A few shots flew into view, he whipped his head around to see where they were going. The massive plasma shots grazing the vehicles nearly non-existent barriers, unable to target because of the jammer he emitted. The man stood, the view shaking as he tried to move any faster than a slow limp before he fell back to his knees. He watched the six wheeled vehicle roll up the ramp and into the shining light in the distance before disappearing.

As it disappeared the man turned his head slowly. Four more colossi were lumbering towards him down the slope. Firing shots from their repeating cannons that deflected off the armor of their downed brethren. The man crawled weakly to cover as they closed in on him. Panting heavily and looking down at the bloody wounds he had all over, he leaned back against the metal frame and closed his eyes.

The only thing left in the recording was audio that slowly became little more than just static.

_*Error. File damage detected*_

The hologram screen disappeared and the geth turned back towards the others who still stood stationary.

_"Further examination of this sub- Correction. This unit. Will be coordinated throughout recovery."_


	2. Anomaly II

Contact with what could be called an artificial conscious had been made. But the body around it was badly damaged. Mutilated almost beyond repair. Lucky for him the geth were super intelligent and could research every form of medical treatment within seconds. Though even with this immense and highly capable medical force, the "human" wouldn't awaken for some time.

And the geth planned to use that time in order to examine the anomaly as much as possible...

_"Beginning projection of earliest available file." _

The file in question was time stamped over two years ago.

The screen crackled to life though the image was near pure static and the audio was dysfunctional to say the least. Only short blurs of clear image could be seen and after a few seconds the projection stopped.

_"Visual feed is too damaged for display. Focusing on what audio can be recovered."_

The voices of a few people came through after a couple seconds. It was muddled and hard to understand, only some of what they said could be deciphered.

...

"*Static* project has been dubbed a failu*static*."

"The *static*ive m*static*on't be happy about th*static*."

"Can't do any*static* about that can we?"

"We'll have to just move onto further experi*static*tation with the human sub*static*."

"We've already pushed Kaho*static* body to the limit, if we continue he'll *static*."

"You think the boss cares?"

"..."

"Just get back to the lab and prep the good admir*static*, I'll schedule this one for termination before the weeks out."

_*Error. Audio files damaged*_

_"Advancing to the second most intact file."_

...

Another broken file, it was time stamped only a few days after the first but had nothing but audio.

"Well he is technically awake but appears unresponsive." The voice was that of an older woman, "Almost like he is in a trance."

"Hmm, let me talk to him." Another woman said and footsteps could be heard getting closer, "Hey you in there? The doc says you're awake and I need some information... You sure this guy is awake?"

"Positive, I've been monitoring his vital signs and he appears to have been awake since you brought him in."

"Tch, so he's giving us the silent treatment?" She asked with an annoyed tone, "Sure there isn't something wrong with his brain?"

"My apologies Commander but the machines must be on the fritz because it can't seem to pick up any brain waves." The doctor replied.

"Great." she sighed, "Alright, if you won't talk I will," Her attention diverted back to the silent man, "My name is Commander Shepard, you're aboard my ship and I want to know what the hell was going on in that base and who the hell you are." She demanded in a sharp but commanding tone.

Suddenly there was some shuffling and a new voice could be heard, "Your question is too vague for me to understand... Please rephrase."

"So now you wanna talk?" She scoffed, "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Apologies," His voice monotonous and calm, "I was ordered to remain unresponsive unless a high ranking human official said otherwise."

"A high ranking human official?" She repeated confused, "A little general don't you think? I mean anyone could say they're a high rank if it meant getting information."

"Plausible."

"So why would you follow the order?"

"It was embedded in my base coding."

"Coding?"

"Coding, noun. The transforming of a variate into a more convenient-"

"Dammit I know what the word means!"

"Then why did you ask?" His voice carried genuine confusion.

"Christ it's like talking to a brick wall... At least a wall doesn't give stupid answers..." She added with a grumble, "Okay I'll start simple. Who are you?"

"Project E.L.I candidate 341."

"What does E.L.I mean?"

"Experimental Living Intelligence."

"Elaborate the projects objective." The doctor suddenly cut in.

The man remained silent. Shepard sighed, "Elaborate the projects objective." She repeated.

"To create a bridge between organic and synthetic life that could be adapted for military purposes."

"Holy shit." Shepard whistled, "The machines aren't broken doc, you couldn't detect any brainwaves because he doesn't have one."

"Commander are you really suggesting-"

"Yep, I think we've found ourselves an A.I in human skin."

"That's just... Insane..."

"Well we'll find out what to do about him later, maybe have Tali take a look at him," The Commander suggested, "Now tell me who you were created by." She ordered.

"Unknown."

"What?"

"You do not understand?"

"*Sigh* Alright, start from the beginning of project E.L.I." She ordered, "And give me the important details."

"Project E.L.I began approximately-"

_*Error. Audio files damaged*_

It was hard to describe what kind of feelings were running through the minds of each geth in the room. Well they shared the same mind so it was all the same. Though without real feelings they were only able to understand one thing brought on by this new information.

Confusion.


	3. Anomaly III

**This will probably be the shortest chapter, but also the most important of the Arc, the next chapter will be the final one of this arc and will be longer I hope.**

**And thanks for the reviews and faves :D **

* * *

"I say we space it."

Finally an intact memory. The geth rejoiced!

"Oh come on you haven't even examined him yet."

And to see the anomaly in contact with a creator spiked their interests even higher.

"_It_ Shepard, _It._"

Though her opinion of him wasn't very high...

"Not according to the physical exam."

"I don't care what its got between its legs I care about what's in its head."

"Tali, don't make me give you an order."

The quarian sighed heavily, "Fine... Keelah why do I get stuck with the worst jobs?..." She grumbled while walking closer to the stationary E.L.I.

"Alright Eli, you answer any questions she asks you understand?" Shepard ordered crossing her arms.

"You named it?" Tali asked.

"No that's his name." She shrugged.

"Correction." He cut in suddenly, "I have been giving designation Experimental Living Intelligence candidate 341."

"Eli." Shepard said simply, "A lot shorter."

E.L.I paused for a moment and his eyes flickered between green and orange, "New designation is... Acceptable."

The quarian let out another heavy sigh and shook her head before looking at him, "Alright... So tell me, "Eli", what are your feelings towards organics?"

"Clarify."

"Are you like the geth?"

"Clarify."

"Do you want to kill organics?" Her eyes narrowing with frustration through her visor.

"No."

"Why?"

"I was not ordered to." His answers monotonous and devoid of emotion.

""But would you if you could?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Why would I?" He countered.

"Because you're an A.I." Tali scoffed.

Eli's eyes flickered between from green to blue for a moment before changing back, "Your response is based on a presupposition that all A.I hold animosity towards organics."

"Well... It's not exactly unheard of for to attack organic life forms." She huffed crossing her arms.

"Those A.I were not me." He replied simply, "I have never attacked an organic unless it was ordered by another organic. Does this answer satisfy your question?"

Tali relented for a moment and nodded slowly, "I guess... Anything else you want to know Shepard?"

The red headed woman furrowed her brow in thought for a moment before looking at Eli, "What do you know about Cerberus?"

"Clarify, what is Cerberus?"

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "The people that created you..."

"I was never given any information beyond what was necessary for testing." Eli replied.

"Why not?" Tali scoffed, "I thought you were supposed to be some super intelligent A.I super soldier."

"This assumption is not entirely correct." Eli explained, "Project E.L.I was dubbed a failure when I was unable to retain a specific component of this bodies former owner."

Shepard raised an eyebrow and looked at Tali confused, "Wait... The project was a failure? Than why were you still at the base?"

"My termination was scheduled for the following day." Eli replied, "The final data was being gathered that they would need to start the project again elsewhere."

Tali rolled her eyes, "Just had to rush the mission."

Shepard ignored Tali and raised an eyebrow to Eli, "So I guess you owe me one?" She joked.

Eli nodded slowly, "I wasn't programmed enough to show... Gratitude, but you are the highest ranking human official, so I will follow your orders."

"Wanna join the crew? Well I'll have to get you into the shooting range first." Shepard smirked as she began walking away, "For now rest up and grab some grub, that's an order."

Tali followed her close behind, "Shepard you can't honestly be considering allowing that _thing_ to join your crew!"

Their voices began to fade as they walked out the medical bay doors. Eli did as ordered and laid back on the medical bed, closing his eyes and falling asleep.


End file.
